INHABITANTS OP PERU. 



271 



the nostrils, after the manner of the Persians, Arabians, and 

 inhabitants of the coast of Malabar ; and wear a variety of 

 pendants of gold and silver. They adorn the arms and neck 

 with bracelets and collars, made of the teeth of men who have 

 perished in the war, or of those of animals. Over the shoul- 

 der they throw the quiver, and in the hands they bear the bow 

 and the arrow. The women likewise cut the hair in front, 

 leaving it to fall to the brows ; but are particularly careful of 

 the hinder hair, which flows loosely and copiously over the 

 shoulders : they ornament their ears with the choicest trinkets. 

 Both males and females stain the teeth and lips of a black hue, 

 and the body of various colours. In painting the face, they 

 have recourse to red, the colour which, among the Romans, 

 served as a distindtive mark to Jupiter on the days of the pub- 

 lic festivals, and which likewise decorated the countenance of 

 the heroes, when they made their public entry into Rome*. 

 If the god Cupid were to throw off his bandage, he and his 

 mother Venus might serve to depi6l these nations. But the 

 resemblance in this respedt, does not produce in them an 

 identity of customs, as happens to the inhabitants of the Mal- 

 divian Isles, in whom an analogous stile of dress, or rather 

 the absence of all covering, has obliterated even the idea of 

 shame. 



* ^uod rubens color deorum sit, unde et triumphantes facie m'lnlata. — Serv. in Virg, 

 Eclog. VI. A passion for beauty, according to the ideas they entertain of ir, is not 

 the only reason why the Indians who dwell on the mountains paint themselves : they 

 likewise do this to guard against the pun£lures of the insefts, whose feeble sting 

 cannot penetrate the coat of paint which they spread over the surface of the 

 body. 



A warrior 



